Saturday, October 31, 2015

GIVEN the tens of millions of people in retirement
or about to enter it, it’s surprising how few plan for something most
of them will eventually need: help doing basic tasks at home. But
perhaps it is not so surprising: It’s like learning a difficult new
language late in life.

Only about 1 percent
of those aged 65 to 74 live in nursing homes, the Census Bureau reports.
Most retirees continue to live at home as they age, even though many do
not have relatives nearby to assist them as it becomes harder to handle
daily activities because of declining health, mobility or cognitive
difficulties.

Of those who need the help
most, many won’t admit they need it or obtain assistance willingly on
their own. They fear loss of independence and becoming a burden to their
families. This is an issue I’m facing in my own family and it’s
difficult to navigate.

For most older people, it
is far preferable to stay at home rather than enter a nursing home. But
it isn’t easy to make it work. Just ask Coleen Wagner, who lives in
Saratoga, Calif., and has helped several relatives find home care. That
includes, most recently, her mother-in-law, who was 85 and had dementia
at the time. She has since died. (Continue Reading)

Sadly, many adults who rely on family, friends and others for help
suffer at the hands of those entrusted with their care. And too often,
they are afraid or unable to reach out for help.

Elder
abuse comes in many forms. An older adult might be abused physically,
sexually, emotionally or financially. No matter what form it takes,
abuse or neglect of an older adult is wrong.

According to the
National Center on Elder Abuse, there are no accurate statistics with
regard to how many people are currently suffering from elder abuse and
neglect. That’s because so many cases go unreported. Statistics do show
that women are more likely to suffer abuse than men, and that the older a
senior is, the more likely he or she is to become a victim.

More
than half of abuse cases reported in Illinois involve financial
exploitation. Active or passive neglect is the second-most common form
of elder abuse in the state.

Adult Protective Services, under the
authority of the Illinois Adult Protective Services Act, works to
protect seniors from all forms of abuse and neglect. Through its
efforts, every case of suspected abuse, neglect and financial
exploitation is investigated and law enforcement intervenes whenever
necessary.

Anyone can report a case of adult abuse, and certain
professionals, including medical personnel and Home Helpers caregivers,
are required by law to report any suspected case of abuse of neglect.

To
report suspected abuse, call 1-866-800-1409. For residents in nursing
facilities, call 1-800-252-4343. For residents who live in supportive
living facilities, call 1-800-226-0768.

Friday, October 30, 2015

One day in March 2012, 71-year-old Linda McDowell received a knock at the door of her small Vancouver, Wash., home. Ms. McDowell needed court-appointed help, the visitor told her.

It turned out that Ms. McDowell’s former housemate and companion had pushed for a court petition claiming Ms. McDowell was unable to take care of herself. The petition said Ms. McDowell had recently made an unsafe driving maneuver, had been disruptive in a doctor’s office and, in a recent phone call, had seemed confused over the whereabouts of some personal papers.

Based on the motion, a judge ordered an attorney to act as a temporary guardian with control over Ms. McDowell’s money and medical care. Ms. McDowell was also to pay for these services.

“I was shocked,” says Ms. McDowell, who once worked as a conference manager for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration before a second career in real-estate investing. “I had never met this person, and here she was telling me I basically belonged to her.”

The visit marked the start of a 30-month stretch in Washington’s guardianship system that upended her life and drained much of her $700,000 in assets. People involved in her case still disagree about whether Ms. McDowell ever needed a guardian. But by the time a judge decided that one wasn’t necessary, the value of her assets had dropped by about $470,000, much of which was spent on several guardians and related expenses, court and bank records show.

“My savings are gone,” says Ms. McDowell, now living in a motor home near Sequim, Wash., with her dog, Sam. “They took everything.”

For decades, states have granted courts the power to appoint guardians or conservators for elderly or disabled people unable to tend to their basic needs. Most appointed guardians are family members, but judges can turn to a growing industry of professional, unrelated guardians.

The caretakers’ authority varies by case and jurisdiction, but often they are granted broad authority over a ward’s finances, medical care and living conditions. Unlike a power of attorney, which one person can grant to another and revoke at any time, guardianship is established by a judge and can only be revoked by the court.

Because guardianship systems vary by state and county and record-keeping systems are inconsistent, precise national data is unavailable. But the roughly 1.5 million adult guardianships in the U.S. involve an estimated $273 billion in assets, according to Anthony Palmieri, auditor for the guardianship fraud program in Palm Beach County, Fla.

According to a survey on guardianship conducted last year by the Administrative Conference of the United States, a federal agency, 64% of the 855 judges and staff who responded said their courts had taken action against at least one guardian for misconduct-related issues in the previous three years.

Guardians across the country have faced prosecution for wrongdoing in the past year. In July, Stephen Grisham, a guardian in Minneapolis, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay restitution of nearly $160,000 after pleading guilty to stealing from his wards. He is “a very good person who made a horrible mistake,” says his attorney, Thomas Plunkett.

The problems are more urgent as aging baby boomers cause the population of seniors nearly to double by 2050, according to Census estimates. In New Jersey, the number of adult guardianships added annually increased 21% from 2009 to 2014, to 2,689 cases.

Guardians properly supervised by courts typically do a good job protecting elderly people from exploitation by acquaintances and others, says Catherine Seal, a guardianship attorney in Colorado Springs, Colo., and president-elect of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. “The worst cases that I see are the ones where there is no guardian,” she says.

In one case Ms. Seal handled several years ago, she says an elderly woman was befriended by a neighbor who persuaded her to buy a condo and include the neighbor’s name on the title. A year later, the neighbor had the woman transfer full ownership to her and moved in to the unit. After Ms. Seal was appointed conservator, she sold the condo and recovered the investment for the elderly woman.

Expenses that arise as a result of a guardianship, including lawyers for both the guardians and wards, typically get paid from the ward’s assets. (In some jurisdictions, there is a public guardian’s office that handles cases for indigent clients.) The financial arrangement, critics say, encourages lawyers and guardians to perpetuate guardianships indefinitely.

One minute you’re the king of New York, never mind
what Andrew Cuomo thinks, and 10 months later it’s all dust — your
lawyers are preparing for a trial that could send you to prison for a very long time, and your friends in high places are falling over like bowling pins.

The announcement that Merryl Tisch will be standing down as chancellor of the state Board of Regents
— the most powerful position in New York education — marks an end to
whatever lingering influence former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver may
have had over public affairs in the Empire State.

Both Tisch and Lippman grew up on the Lower East Side with Silver —
the one-time master of all that mattered in Albany and clearly a man who
both treasured loyalty and rewarded old relationships.

Tisch owed her elevation to the chancellorship to a quirk in the
state Constitution that effectively vests control of the Board of
Regents in the incumbent speaker — a power Silver exercised with
ruthless competence.

Lippman benefited from the outsized influence Silver brought to all
politics in New York during a period when lassitude, followed by
explosive scandal and then breathtaking bumbling, reduced the state’s
executive branch to near impotence.

There is no small irony in the fact that Silver’s alleged abuse of
the trial courts — US Attorney Preet Bharara charges that Silver abused
his high office to corruptly make it rain for the power-house tort firm
Weitz & Luxenberg — led to his own indictment.

Silver is scheduled to go on trial next week on seven charges of mail
fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering and extortion connected with what
the indictment terms “monetary transactions involving criminal proceeds”
of at least $4 million. The former speaker will sit there as witness
after witness testifies that Shelly traded legislative favor X for
“legal fee” Y, among other humiliations.

But there is no doubt that before it all went south, the empire Sheldon Silver created was very, very good to him.

It extended far beyond Tisch and Lippman, of course. The same
constitutional quirk that led to her chancellorship, for example,
allowed the speaker to hand-pick state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli after
then-incumbent Alan Hevesi left office en route to his own prison term.

But let’s stick with Silver’s LES cronies.

Lippman, who’s leaving the court only because he’s reached the
mandatory retirement age of 70, not only was tort-bar friendly. He also
championed the sort of uber-liberal policies that Silver’s left-leaning
Assembly conference was so appreciative of.

Tisch, who talks as tough a game as anyone on education standards and
teacher evaluations, somehow always manages to resolve issues in ways
that the state’s fundamentally corrupt teachers unions find
unobjectionable.

To be fair, both Lippmann and Tisch have been bright, competent
partisans for intellectually defensible points of view. It’s just that
those viewpoints aligned with Silver’s interests far too often to be
coincidental.

And that — the federal penal code aside — is arguably Silver’s most
objectionable offense: He turned an entire branch of government to his
personal advantage. So it shouldn’t surprise that he decided to make big
bucks on the side — as Bharara alleges.

Whether there is substance to those charges will be resolved
beginning next week, in a federal courthouse. Whatever the outcome,
though, two things seem beyond dispute.

One is that there most likely will never be another Sheldon Silver —
or, rather, another New York legislator who possesses the intelligence,
skill, patience and ethical indifference needed to construct an empire
of the sort the former speaker ran for more than two decades.

The other — and this is essentially just a sidebar: The departure of
Merryl Tisch and Jonathon Lippman from public life is every bit as
epoch-ending as Silver’s exit.

Lamar Odom's father Joe was livid on Wednesday evening when he was not permitted to see his son, who is at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles as he recovers from an October 13 overdose at a Nevada brothel.

The patriarch ranted to TMZ that Khloe Kardashian is to blame for blocking him at the facility, even though he had flown out from Las Vegas just to see the former NBA great, who needs a new kidney.

But a source has told DailyMail.com that the 31-year-old E! star has 'zero control over who can visit Lamar at the LA hospital' and she was not even at the facility when Joe came by. (Continue Reading & watching other video)

The Florida State University College of Criminology and
Criminal Justice in partnership with Merrill Lynch and Seniors vs.
Crime, will be conducting research on elder financial exploitation in
The Villages.

To kick off their research, the College will be holding
Town Hall Meetings on financial fraud at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 9 at
Eisenhower Recreation Center and at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 at
Savannah Center.

Residents of The Villages are encouraged to attend one of
the two Town Hall Meetings to learn about financial fraud occurring in
The Villages, how to report financial fraud, and prevention tips from
Seniors vs. Crime.

Thomas Blomberg, dean and executive director

Additionally, the Florida State University College of
Criminology and Criminal Justice will be conducting surveys about
residents’ experience with financial fraud. Interested residents will be
asked to participate in upcoming focus groups and interviews that the
college will be conducting.

The college will use the information collected from
surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gain insight into financial
exploitation victimization and avoidance. The study’s focus will be on
identifying some of the salient risk and protective factors associated
with elder financial exploitation.

“We believe that what we know in official statistics is
only the tip of the iceberg,” said Thomas Blomberg, dean and executive
director of the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research. “We
want to have a better empirically valid description of how extensive
this problem is. In order to develop a better identification of risk and
prevention tactics we have got to get a better indicator of the
incidents and then the characteristics of those who are victims of fraud
and those who are not.”

To find out more contact The Village’s Seniors vs. Crime office at (352) 689-4600 Ext. 4606.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Former Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge on Friday
was sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to make
restitution of more than $751,000 for her admissions to stealing
$232,000 from the court.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered Birge, 61, to
serve three years supervised release after completion of her custody
term but imposed no fine citing her inability to pay.

There is no parole in a federal sentence.

She will have until 2 p.m. on Nov. 20 to report to a federal facility designated for custody.

Birge, standing with attorney Tom Withers, told Moore that she
“wanted to ask forgiveness for everybody who has been affected by my
wrongdoing.

“I am ashamed and embarrassed.”

But she asked Moore to consider her efforts to beat the twin problems
of pain medication and gambling addiction and said, “I never meant to
hurt anyone.”

“I promise to you that I will never let anyone down again,” Birge said.

“This is atrocious,” Clarence Bynes Jr., who was one of Birge’s 33
individual victims, told Moore.

“There was no fear here. … This was just
greed. Why would anyone do this to young kids. … Ms. Birge should be
ashamed.”

He told the judge he lost $217,000 with Probate Court from the sale
of his father’s house. He did not learn of the theft until the day he
went to claim the money and was told his money was gone.

“I’m sorry. I don’t see no leniency. … Your honor, this is not fair,” Bynes said.

His testimony, one of three victims to address the court, came after
Birge’s sister-in-law, Karen Birge Lang, testified the family could not
believe her conduct.

“Everyone depended on her,” Lang said. “Obviously she’s been under a lot of stress for a number of years.”

Birge’s father, Robert Helmey, also testified he did not know what had occurred.

“I don’t know. It’s not Kim,” he said. “I ask for a second chance in life for her.”

Birge pleaded guilty on July 31 to stealing $232,000 from the court
as part of a scheme in which the government said she stole more than
$750,000 over a three-year period.

As part of the plea to the mail fraud count, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts in the indictment.

A pre-sentencing investigation identified 33 individual victims, two
estates and Chatham County Probate Court that suffered loses as the
result of her conduct.

Moore said the 36 victims suffered actual loses, adding that none of the funds ever belonged to the court.

The issue then was “who paid what money to whom,” Moore said.

He set the actual restitution in the case at $751,715.95.‘Life spiraled out of control’

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scarlett Nokes told Moore that despite
Birge’s battles with both drugs since 2008 and gambling excesses since
2003, she did not seek help until her crimes were discovered.

The case was in court because Birge victimized people who were trusting her to do her job, Nokes said.

But, Nokes said, the government was standing by its agreement in the
negotiated plea to recommend that she be sentenced at the low end of the
sentencing guidelines of 63 months.

The recommended sentencing guidelines were 63-78 months, with the final sentence Moore’s alone.

Under the terms of her negotiated plea with the government, Birge
pleaded guilty to count three of a five-count indictment, charging her
with mail fraud and federal program fraud in the scheme the government
said lasted between January 2011 and November 2011.

But under federal sentencing guidelines, probation officers can
consider all alleged misconduct — including dismissed counts — in
reaching their recommendations to the judge.

During Birge’s appearance in court, the judge said he found it a
mystery that the 342 checks she had written to cash, 322 were checks for
less than $3,000 and only 20 in excess of that number.

Birge explained that Probate Judge Harris Lewis had told her she did
not have to get permission to write checks of $2,900 or less.

When Moore suggested that her conduct suggested she had a reason for
the check sums, Birge responded, “I didn’t try to hide anything from
anyone. … Much of the time I didn’t know what I was doing.

“I can’t explain why I did what I did and I’m sorry and I just pray for mercy.”

And Birge said that despite the probation report finding only an
audit of the court in 2009. “That’s not true. We were audited every
year. Every year they come in my office and sat in the record room and
audited our records,” Birge said.

Probation officials only found a 2009 audit and one in 2014.

The count to which she pleaded charged that between Sept. 21, 2011,
and Oct. 18, 2011, a check for $232,000 payable to the Chatham County
Probate Court was among those she used for herself.

In his pre-sentencing memorandum, Withers told Moore his client’s
life spun out of control because of painkiller drugs and gambling,
leaving her “shamed and a lifetime of good works destroyed.”

“Kim was unable to handle the losses and stressors in her life and
instead of seeking help, she turned to drugs and gambling,” Withers
said. “She would disappear into a world of addiction, and her life
spiraled out of control.

“Ultimately, Kim became addicted to the prescription opioids she was
taking for pain management. Kim became seriously addicted to video game
gambling in convenience stores both near her work and home.”

A
Brooklyn judge with nearly 30 years on the bench resigned after being
accused of improperly approving payments to her clerk for the clerk’s
work as a court-appointed lawyer, officials announced on Thursday.

The
judge, Yvonne Lewis of State Supreme Court, had also been charged with
improperly presiding over guardianship cases in which her clerk,
Kimberly L. Detherage, was also the court-appointed guardian.

“A
judge shouldn’t play any role in any fiduciary case at the point that
the person she hires is involved,” said Robert H. Tembeckjian,
administrator of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which disciplines judges in New York.

Fiduciary
cases in State Supreme Court, where judges have the power to assign
private lawyers to lucrative posts as guardians for the young, elderly
or infirm, have long been a magnet for patronage and the appearance of conflicts of interest — and the subject of periodic reform efforts.

Justice
Lewis, 70, was elected to Civil Court in 1987 and has been an elected
State Supreme Court justice since 1991. Her current term would have
expired at the end of 2016.

She hired Ms. Detherage as her law clerk in 2009, the commission said. In 2013, after an article in The New York Post,
the commission began investigating allegations that Justice Lewis had
approved payments to Ms. Detherage for work she did as a guardian on
cases being heard by other judges.

The
commission said it opened a second investigation last year after the
inspector general of the state courts alleged that Justice Lewis
improperly presided over three cases where Ms. Detherage worked as a
guardian and approved a guardianship payment to Ms. Detherage after
hiring her as her full-time clerk.

“The moment she hires Detherage, she has to take herself off any matter involving Detherage,” Mr. Tembeckjian said.

The
commission declined to reveal the amounts of the payments to Ms.
Detherage that Justice Lewis was charged with improperly approving;
figures for those payments could not be found on the state court system website.

From
2003 to 2008, before hiring Ms. Detherage, the website shows, Justice
Lewis appointed her in at least 26 cases and approved at least $97,000
in fees.

Justice
Lewis “denied certain aspects of the complaints and offered
explanations as to certain aspects of the complaints,” according to a stipulation
signed by her and the commission. The commission said it had not
evaluated those denials and explanations because the judge’s
resignation, which takes effect on Dec. 31, ended the case.

Justice
Lewis’s lawyer, Deborah A. Scalise, said in a statement that if the
commission had continued its investigation, “Justice Lewis is confident”
that the charges “would be dismissed.”

Mr. Tembeckjian disagreed. “Had the matter proceeded, there would have been formal discipline,” he said.

Ms.
Detherage left Justice Lewis’s employ in 2013 and is now in private
practice, Mr. Tembeckjian said. She could not immediately be reached for
comment.

Ms. Detherage has also been the pastor of St. Mark A.M.E. Church
in Queens since 2010, a position that court officials said was full
time and could have conflicted with her full-time job as a law clerk.

Correction: October 16, 2015
An earlier version of this article misidentified the job of
Kimberly L. Detherage in one reference. As the article correctly notes
elsewhere, Ms. Detherage was a law clerk, not a court clerk.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

FARMINGTON — The day after Ty Anderson turned 18, a
mental health professional told his mother she could not longer sit in
on his appointments because of federal medical privacy laws.

Ty Anderson has been diagnosed with classical autism,
his mother says. He is unable to speak and can become combative if he
is scared or in an unfamiliar environment.

Within a matter of minutes, Laura Anderson was
summoned to the office because the evaluation was floundering. "I was
told, 'I guess it would be OK for you to come in.'"

The episode was instructive, said Anderson, who is president of the Autism Council of Utah.

Her son may be an adult according to the calendar,
but he is unable to talk to health care providers to make decisions
about his care. He does not know how to manage money and he needs
assistance with daily living skills such as bathing, food preparation
and dressing.

For Anderson "to continue to be his mom," she will need to petition a court to seek guardianship of her son, who is now 19.

The process has begun and thanks to some recent
changes in Utah, seeking guardianship isn't an onerous as it once was.
Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature passed legislation sponsored by
Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, which lowered the court filing
fee from $360 to $35.

The fee was an impediment for some families so they
would not file the petitions. They risked being unable to act on behalf
of their adult children with profound disabilities when it came time to
making critical medical and financial decisions, Anderson said.

It's not something Anderson said she is willing to leave to chance.

Edwards said her goals in sponsoring the legislation
and working with the state Administrative Office of the Courts was to
reduce the filing fees and streamline the process of filing guardianship
petitions.

"This was sort of how to attack the main problems. It's expensive. It's complex and it's a pain in the neck," she said.

The courts have significantly improved online filing
processes, she said. A pool of attorneys who can represent the parties
pro bono has been assembled, which should further help families.

While some people also want further changes to state
law that would eliminate — in certain circumstances — the requirement
that young adults also be represented by legal counsel when a
guardianship petition is filed, Edwards said advocates for people with
disabilities convinced her that the requirement is needed.

"It really came down to this is what makes America great: Everyone has that right to be represented as an individual," she said.

Kaye Becker, who works as a paraeducator at Davis
School District's Vista Education Campus in Farmington, which serves
student with a wide array of disabilties, said her household spent
nearly $3,500 so she could become her 25-year-old son's guardian.

Becker said she felt strongly that her son have his
own legal representation because she wanted to be sure that the process
was handled correctly and that his rights were protected. Her son works
part-time as a school janitor but he is hearing impaired and has
intellectual disabilities.

To avoid conflicts of interest, Becker had her son pay his legal fees.

"Someone has to make sure someone is looking out for Jeremy so no one is taking advantage of him," she said.

As part of obtaining the guardianship, Becker was
also able to name a successor to look after her son's medical and
financial issues when she is no longer able. (Continue Reading)

A now-disbarred lawyer who used to practice in Flanders was charged
Friday with using the name of a legitimate attorney in a real estate
closing and stealing more than $75,000 in funds meant for the seller of
the property.

Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp on Friday
announced that Neil Lawrence Gross, 47, of Livingston, was charged by
office Detective Joseph Soulias with theft, identity theft and forgery.
He was released into his own custody, and his initial state Superior
Court appearance will be scheduled for a future date.

Gross, a
former partner in the Flanders-based firm Ward & Gross, was
suspended from practicing law in October of 2012 and ultimately was
disbarred on Oct. 21, 2014. According to state Office of Attorney Ethics
records, Gross first was suspended for failing to promptly turn over
funds to a client. His disbarment that followed was related to
violations of attorney ethics that included lack of diligence, failure
to communicate, practicing law while suspended and failure to cooperate
with ethics investigations.

In the current case, the Prosecutor's
Office received a referral of an alleged theft from the New Jersey
Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection in July. Through an investigation
by the Prosecutor's Office's Financial Crimes Unit, Gross was found to have used the name of another attorney in a real estate closing that occurred in 2013, while he was suspended.

As
part of the closing, Gross allegedly held more than $75,000 in a trust
account but failed to disburse the funds to the seller of the property.
He instead diverted the funds to a personal account and in doing so,
forged the name of the other attorney, according to the charges and the
Prosecutor's Office release.

Gross also has a charge pending in
Morris County of passing bad checks in Florham Park in 2014, according
to court records. His attorney, Michael Fletcher, was not available
Friday for comment.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

ROCKLAND, Maine — William Dean said his head has been in a
whirl since the state temporarily became his conservator three years ago
and sold off one home, destroyed a second, sold off prized possessions and killed his cat.

Dean, 70, spoke publicly for the first time Monday about the
series of events that led to him becoming impoverished because of the
actions taken by the state while it controlled his finances for several
months starting in the second half of 2012.

“My head has
been in a whirlwind. It’s hard to express,” Dean said Monday from his
second floor Pacific Street apartment in Rockland.

Two lawsuits filed by Dean’s conservator and his sister over the actions of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services rest in the hands of Justice Andrew Horton of the Maine Business and Consumer Court in Portland.

Dean, who has resided in the one bedroom apartment since
January, said he enjoys the place because it has a view, narrow as it
is, of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse and boats in the harbor.

That view, however, pales in comparison to the one he had
from the cottage on Castlewood Lane in Owls Head that his parents bought
in July 1953. The cottage was the place of many family gatherings, he
recalled Monday.

His father, William Dean Sr., died in 1990, and his mother, Alice Dean, died in January 2012 at the age of 102.

William Dean has suffered from mental health issues
throughout his life. Among other things, he has Asperger’s syndrome,
which makes it difficult for him to interact socially with other people.
After his mother died, Dean experienced a mental health crisis and was
admitted to the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor in May 2012.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services filed a
motion on Sept. 5, 2012, in probate court seeking to be named his
conservator and guardian.

The state argued it needed to become conservator because
Dean — who had never lived independently — was not capable of managing
his finances, stating in its petition to the probate court that he had
misspent more than $200,000 from a family trust, that there were tax
liens on properties in Owls Head and Rockland he had inherited, and that
he had other unpaid bills.

Dean’s cousin Pamela Vose, who is now Dean’s conservator,
said Monday that she told a DHHS official in July 2012 she would
consider being the conservator and asked that the state not appoint
anyone else until she got back to them. Vose’s husband, however,
suffered a heart attack that same month, and she was unable to take on
the conservator responsibility until August when she telephoned DHHS to
say she was ready.

Without letting Vose know, however, the state filed for
conservatorship, contending there was “no suitable private party
available and willing to assume such responsibilities.” A probate judge
in Penobscot County approved the temporary appointment of DHHS as
conservator and guardian on Sept. 6, 2012.

Before the end of the year, the state put the Owls Head
cottage and the Rockland family home up for sale. Vose and Dean’s
sister, Claire Dean Perry, maintain in their separate lawsuits, however,
that the state made no effort to try to work with municipal officials
in Owls Head or Rockland to make sure the properties would not be
foreclosed on because of nonpayment of taxes. The family also argued in
the lawsuits that the state could have sold enough items to cover the
taxes.

Instead, in January 2013, the waterfront cottage in Owls
Head was sold for $205,000, even though the town had the property — 1
acre with 100 feet of ocean frontage as well as the two-story
1,000-square-foot cottage — assessed for tax purposes at $476,840. The
Maine attorney general’s office, which represents DHHS in the lawsuits,
argues the Owls Head property was not worth the taxable value because of
problems with septic and water systems and because it was located next
to a property that was in deplorable condition.

In addition, the sale of the home — considered a second home
— resulted in a capital gains tax of $31,000 being incurred by Dean.

According to court records, the state moved up the sale date
of the Owls Head property by one day after the family found out about
the sale and informed DHHS it would be seeking a court injunction to
stop the sale.

The state also tried to sell the Rockland home on Broadway,
but a pipe broke during the winter when there was no heat and caused
major flooding, which then led to an outbreak of mold throughout the
home, making it uninhabitable, the family has pointed out in court
filings.

After being discharged in June 2013 from Dorothea Dix, Dean
lived for a short while at an assisted living facility in Camden, then
an apartment on Broadway in Rockland before moving into the Pacific
Street apartment that has one room that serves as the living room,
kitchen and dining room and one bedroom and bathroom. The main room is
painted in white and light peach colors with a lot of light, which Dean
said he likes.

A neighbor in the apartment complex is paid to cook meals for Dean, and someone else is paid to clean the apartment.

Because he still owns the Rockland home, the state considers
the property an asset that disqualifies Dean for state assistance, even
though his assets have been nearly drained. The home was assessed by
the city at $177,200, but Rockland Assessor Dennis Reed said he lowered
the assessment to $86,400 after going through the home and seeing the
damage from the flooding.

In court papers filed earlier this year by attorney David
Jenny, Dean had $654,000 worth of real estate that was free of mortgages
in September 2012 but less than a year later, after DHHS took over
conservatorship, he was down to $20,000 in assets.

“There is great concern that Billy’s funds will run out
soon,” Vose said. “It is likely that he will run out of funds before any
resolution is reached because DHHS is well aware of Billy’s lack of
resources and they are dragging this out as long as possible hoping that
when the funds are gone we will by necessity ‘go away.’”

His attorney, Jenny, has not taken one penny for his work
and has given up his personal life for more than two years in order to
help Dean, Vose pointed out. She said the family has given financial and
emotional support, but money, or rather lack of money, is always the
elephant in the living room.

She said when the proceeds from the sale of cottage are
gone, Dean will be dependent on the state or city, “supposing that there
are programs still available to help people in his situation.”

Dean said he was aware the state was trying to sell the Owls
Head property while he was in the hospital but did not learn about the
sale and the low price until after he was discharged from Dorothea Dix.

“I was not very happy about it,” he said.

But what upsets Dean even more was the state’s decision to
euthanize his longtime companion, a 10-year-old Himalayan cat named
Caterpillar.

“I get very emotional talking about it,” Dean said. “I got her from a shelter. She picked me out.”

The state has argued in court filings that there were no
family members willing to care for the cat, but Vose said that was not
the case.

After the lawsuits were filed over its handling of the
estate, DHHS withdrew as conservator. Vose was appointed conservator in
August 2013.

Among the possessions that the state tried to sell but
failed in the wake of the family taking legal action were three musical
organs. One was destroyed in the flooding at the Broadway home. Another
is being stored in Camden.

The third is in Dean’s bedroom apartment.

That is important to Dean because he is a musical savant,
friend and attorney David Jenny said.

Dean’s sister said her brother has
never had a lesson but is able to play a song if he has heard it once.

After the Monday interview, Dean went to the organ and began playing several jazz numbers.

Family members said he would sing show songs at the age of
2, and his first instrument was an accordion. He would play at family
gatherings at the Owls Head cottage, they said.

Dean also is upset the state sold his 2000 Cadillac
Eldorado. Dean still can drive but said he has no money to buy another
car. The car was sold for $385, even though the book value was as much
as $5,600.

Vose said the car was important to Dean because before his
mother died he often would drive her to the Owls Head cottage, then stay
in the car and watch the ocean. Family members said he does not go for
walks in the new neighborhood because he does not like the interaction
with other people.

The state has defended its actions and maintained it is
immune from liability while acting as the conservator. The lawsuits seek
to overturn the sale of the Owls Head home and to return it to Dean.
The suits also seek unspecified monetary damages. Jenny represents Vose
as Dean’s conservator; attorney Cynthia Dill represents Dean’s sister,
Claire Dean Perry

The judge has no timetable for deciding the outcome of the lawsuits.

When asked what he would like to come out of the legal proceedings, Dean had a one-word answer.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Or dinner either. So if you
get an invitation in the mail to a wonderful meal where an expert will
be discussing an important retirement topic -- such as maximizing your
Social Security or estate planning and living trusts -- don't go!

You
will find yourself paying for that "free meal" many times over. How do
you think they can afford to make such a generous offer? They are
expecting a good percentage of the attendees to purchase expensive
annuities or other products, or to spend an exorbitant amount on an
estate plan.

I'm sorry to paint all these events with the same brush, but I'm
not alone in doing so. Last week the major securities regulatory
agencies, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the North
American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) listed "free
lunch" seminars as one of their greatest concerns when it comes to
"elder financial abuse."

But with 10,000 Americans reaching age 65
every day, there is a growing need for advice about how to manage
retirement assets and a desperate search for trusted advisors. That
creates a wide open opportunity for financial fraud or abuse on the part
of slick salespeople who gain the trust of naive seniors.

When it comes to investment issues, FINRA recently
created a toll-free helpline to assist seniors with questions about
their brokerage accounts, including statements and individual
investments. The toll-free number (844-57-HELPS or 844-574-3577) is
staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.

But the
best problem resolution is no substitute for financial abuse prevention.
One way to get unbiased advice is to use a fee-only certified financial
financial planner, who has no incentive to sell you a specific product
or service. The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
(NAPFA) maintains a planner search tool at its website, www.FeeOnly.org.

Elder Financial Abuse

It's
one thing for a confused senior to make a mistake in trusting the wrong
person -- or falling for the "free lunch" deals. But the problem of
taking advantage of seniors rises to another level when investment
ignorance is supplanted by actual financial elder abuse.

Over the
years I've written several columns about the fast-growing problem of
elder financial abuse. It happens even to those who have concerned
family members. Their adult children are afraid to discuss the issues of
estate planning and budgeting and bill payment with their aging
parents. As a result, many seniors send their money to online ministries
or are victimized by home repair scams or all sorts of other fraudulent
activities.

Discuss those issues with your parents over the
upcoming holiday season. Elderly parents have the right to take umbrage
at the suggestion that they're not taking adequate control of their
finances. However, they also should be grateful to have children who
care. On the other hand, a growing amount of financial elder abuse
actually comes from adult children who rip off their parents' savings.
That's illegal. And if you know it is happening in your family, it
should be reported to law enforcement or the state department of aging.

What
happens to the millions of seniors who have no one but a caregiver
looking out for them? Sadly, caregiver fraud is another growing form of
elder abuse. An isolated, dependent senior may turn to the caregiver out
of need or fear, with no one around to prevent the theft.

Even
banks, which should be the front line of prevention because they can see
changing patterns of spending and unusual withdrawal, are handcuffed by
privacy laws. Somehow they are able to alert you to a potentially
fraudulent use of your credit card, but they cannot deny a withdrawal to
a senior who comes to the teller window with a caregiver.

FINRA
has proposed a rule (FINRA 2160) that would place a temporary hold on
disbursement of funds from investment accounts if there is a concern of
exploitation.

Financial elder abuse is a growing and devastating
problem that will only increase as more seniors are left vulnerable.
It's hard to believe, but there is still no national law covering
financial elder abuse. Every state, however, has an elder abuse hotline
as part of its department of aging. The best place to search for
resources is the website of the National Center on Elder Abuse (http://www.ncea.aoa.gov). (Continue Reading)

Mae was stunned and had tears in her eyes. She said, "I can’t believe
it. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe this. Oh my God. Thank you so
much.”

“I felt heartbroken because that is horrible that people do that to the elderly,” said Defino.

LaShier said she hired three men to take down her old shed, fix her
roof and power wash her home. She said they left with the money and
didn’t finish the job. She was unable to reach them.

She filed a complaint with the Norfolk Police Department. They said they are investigating the case.

LaShier was devastated and upset she had been scammed.

The response from the NewsChannel 3 viewers was overwhelming when they heard what happened to her.

Dozens of people called, wrote emails, and reached out on the WTKR Facebook Page wondering how they could help.

“It’s really disgusting. You have to be a real low life, piece of
scum to do something like this to an elderly lady, and I just knew that
if I could, I needed to do something,” said Von Lester, an off-duty
firefighter working for Virginia Pressure Washing, INC.

Virginia Pressure Washing took action and got results for Mae on Friday.

Three off-duty firefighters showed up ready to work.

They took down the shed, hauled away the debris and finished the power washing job.

The owner, Tim Nunez said, "This has been the family business for a
while, and most of our business is built on trust and it was the right
thing to do.”

“I’ve never had anything like this happene to me before. To have such wonderful people like this,” said LaShier.

Mae said being scammed was a learning experience, and she is
extremely grateful to all the people who took action and got results for
her.

Monday, October 26, 2015

William Price was supposed to be helping older people as a caseworker for Atlantic County Adult Protective Services.

But on Friday, the Linwood man
was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing $125,000 from an
elderly couple he met through his job. He now must repay that money.

Price, 57, was part of a scheme
to bilk the elderly, allegedly led by attorney Barbara Lieberman and Jan
Van Holt, the owner of a business that offered in-home care and legal
financial planning for the elderly.

Lieberman, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence, allegedly stole more than $800,000 from the same couple.

Price pleaded guilty in July to
second-degree theft by deception, and Superior Court Judge Bernard
DeLury sentenced him under that agreement.

Price admitted he met the unnamed
couple in 2006 through his job with the county. He then befriended them
and recruited them as clients for the alleged members of the scheme.

“We’re supposed to respect and
care for our elders with the utmost dignity and humanity, but Price
callously preyed on this couple, betraying their trust, his duties as a
social worker and every standard of decency,” said acting Attorney
General John Hoffman. “This prison sentence sends a strong message that
this type of abuse of the vulnerable, especially when committed by
someone responsible for their care, will be met with harsh punishment.”

“What makes this case so
appalling is that the man who initially targeted the victims for fraud
was a caseworker for Adult Protective Services who used that position to
secure the trust of his victims,” Honig said.

“This sentence should serve a
strong message to the remaining individuals who were charged along with
Price and anyone else who would contemplate similar abuses against the
elderly,” said Col. Rick Fuentes, State Police superintendent.

BETHLEHEM
— In what Michael Carey is calling a Walking Tall for Justice Tour, he
is pushing public officials to reform policies for reporting abuse of
disabled individuals.

Carey
will spend the next several weeks touring the state and speaking with
officials to promote new legislation. He will also visit centers across
the state where incidents of abuse to disabled individuals have
occurred.

Carey
began his tour at the Justice Center at 161 Delaware Ave. in Delmar on
Tuesday, Oct. 13. He will make stops in Rome, Utica, Syracuse, through
Western New York, and then travel to Long Island and New York City.

Rather
than having reports of abuse reported directly to the New York State
Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, Carey
would have all calls reporting abuse be made to 911.

Carey
hopes the added initial response recording obtained from the call would
add another layer of evidence. This would also ensure all reports are
investigated by first responders, as Carey fears some cases of abuse
have been under-reported and under-investigated.

Calls
to the Justice Center are already directed via a voice recording to
call 911 in the event of an emergency. The center is considered a law
enforcement agency by New York State, because it employs investigators
to examine suspect cases. The agency is responsible for several state
services for the disabled. It handles cases of guardianship and abuse of
disabled individuals, and manages care centers throughout the state.

“Every
allegation of abuse or neglect that is reported to the Justice Center
is fully investigated,” said Diane Ward, director of communications at
the Justice Center. The center has “strict procedures in place to ensure
the safety of the population it serves,” and “those stating otherwise
are misinformed,” said Ward.

Designated
mandatory reporters, like teachers and doctors are required by law to
report instances abuse to authorities. As such, the New York State
Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs receives
about 7,000 reports of abuse monthly, according to their public records. (Continue Reading)

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Will be discussing SB 1362 -Bill to Amend SS & SB 670 Nursing Home Litigation first half hour of show.

In 2010. Gina's significant other of 21 years passed away from ovarian cancer and Gina wound up homeless and in great medical need. Gina went through several major surgeries then placed in a Skilled Nursing Facility where her life was saved. Gina was moved from one facility to the one she is in now from 2011.

Gina was appointed Vice President of the Residents Council then voted President of the Resident Council and found herself fighting the powers that be for the residents rights. She began studying the medicaid/medicare laws and rights provided for the residential care in these facilities.

Since then Gina have become increasingly aware of how the nursing homes target these elderly patients from the doctor to the judges that abuse the guardianship program for their own gain. Gina's intention is to spend the rest of her life helping those targeted by these guardian programs that allow doctors to claim someone incapacitated, and lawyers that go behind the backs of friends and family and judges that grant for profit guardianship and complete control over others lives without telling them.

2015- June. Gina read Marisa Conover's story regarding her mother and reached out to her. She then hooked me up with TS radio. Marti Oakley and Debbie Dahmer had Gina as one of the Guests on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day -June 15th, 2015 On TS Radio.

Mickey Rooney shrieks in pain. Is he OK? "No, I'm
not," he says, choking back tears. It's July 2010, inside The Grill on
the Alley in Thousand Oaks, and in the midst of an interview with one of
the authors of this piece, the diminutive 89-year-old has been kicked
under the table by his eighth wife, Jan, as confirmed by his stepson, Chris Aber, who also is at the table. "She kicked him real hard," says Chris with a laugh. Rooney's offense? Rambling in his answers.

This
meeting took place because the interviewer (who, as a then-freelance
writer, was gathering material for a book) agreed to requirements set
forth by Jan and Chris and conveyed to him over the phone by Kevin Pawley,
Rooney's Kentucky-based manager: Bring a check for $200 and slip it to
Chris when Rooney wasn't paying attention (ostensibly because financial
transactions make him uncomfortable) and treat the three of them to
lunch at the restaurant (Jan later ordered dinners to go for each of
them).

A flip cam at the end of the table rolls as Jan,
theatrically seeking the source of what caused her husband's pain, peers
under the table for a moment and then turns to Chris and scolds him for
confirming, in part, what the general public only would learn later: In
his final years, Rooney was the victim of ongoing elder abuse.

The
alleged wrongdoing and how it went on for so long has been a mystery -
until now. Five years after that interview, and more than a year after
the star's death, an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter
(uncovering legal documents, witness testimony and financial records
that never before have been publicized) indicates Rooney's life was more
abusive than he let on while he was alive. What's more, the trouble
persisted until he died in April 2014 in a Studio City rental, with only
$18,000 to his name. (Rooney's body rests at the Hollywood Forever
Cemetery, where many legendary movie stars are buried.)

Just weeks after Chris was served with a restraining order on
Valentine's Day in 2011 accusing him of financially exploiting Rooney as
his business manager, the actor flew to Washington, D.C. Herb Kohl,
chairman of the Senate Special Aging Committee, had read press reports
that a conservator for Rooney was pursuing elder-abuse charges, and he
invited Rooney to testify about what he'd been through. As a transcript
of that hearing reveals, Rooney, without naming names, tearfully
explained that he'd himself been a victim of the increasingly common
crime, stripped "of the ability to make even the most basic decisions
about my life," leading to an "unbearable" and "helpless" daily
existence. In a process that began after Rooney confided in a Disney
executive during filming of 2011's The Muppets, Rooney's attorneys filed
court papers in their petition for a conservator (to protect him and
recover his assets) that revealed the extent of the control - he
wasn't even allowed to buy food or carry identification. (Continue Reading)

Florida Judge John C. Murphy received an unusual order from the
Supreme Court of Florida. He was immediately suspended and faces an
“order to show cause” why he should not be removed from office. All
because the judge lost his cool in court, gave a public defender a
tongue lashing, invited the public defender to the hallway stating “I’ll
just beat your ass,” and then engaged in a scuffle with the public
defender right outside the courtroom.

The judge’s statements in the courtroom were video-taped and it
clearly shows the public defender heading to the hallway. While there is
no video of the hallway interaction between the judge and the public
defender, an altercation can clearly be heard on the video from the
courtroom.

There was divergent testimony at the judge’s disciplinary hearing.
The public defender testified that once in the hallway the judge grabbed
him with one hand and repeatedly punched him with the other. The judge
admitted grabbing the public defender but denied ever punching him. A
woman in the courtroom testified that as the door to the hallway was
closing, she saw the judge grab the public defender and start to swing
at him.

The Florida Supreme Court’s order is all the more unusual because of
the recommended sanction from the Judicial Qualification Commission
which presided over the disciplinary hearing. The Commission recommended
a four month suspension without pay and a $50,000 fine. As of late, the
Court has been imposing stiffer sanctions in judicial discipline cases.
The judge had taken a month-long leave of absence from the bench,
sought mental health counseling, issued a public apology and asked the
Supreme Court to uphold the commission’s recommendations.

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NASGA (National Association to STOP Guardian Abuse, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) public-interest, civil rights organization formed by victims of unlawful and abusive guardianships and conservatorships. We seek legislative reform of existing law and upgrading of criminal penalties for court-appointed fiduciaries misusing protective proceedings for unjust enrichment and engaging in elder and family abuse.

Our mission is to promote the safety and well being of vulnerable persons subject to injury and damage in their person and property through unlawful and abusive guardianship and/or conservatorship proceedings; to end the growing violations of due process, civil and human rights; to work towards ultimate legislative reform of guardianship as presently practiced; upgrading of criminal penalties for court-appointed fiduciaries misusing protective proceedings for unjust enrichment; and to be a support organization for victims and their families. We carry out our mission through research, outreach, education and advocacy; and going forward, by alliance with community interest, law reform, civil rights and other advocacy organizations.

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